


Face Value

by gazeboseddie



Series: Face Value [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Byers!Cousin!OC, Canon storyline, F/M, M/M, Multi, and they talk about everything, basically a coming of age story, but with some twists, kinda angsty, will is super close to his cousin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 20:40:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19911856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gazeboseddie/pseuds/gazeboseddie
Summary: After Christy’s mother dies, she comes to live with her aunt and cousins, the Byers. She has to live out her last two years of high school where she only knows four middle schoolers and a moody high schooler. Her and Jonathon had never been the closest but now he was all she had to survive the next two years of high school. She’s not sure why everyone keeps referring to her cousin as ‘zombie boy’ but she’s determined to find out.





	Face Value

_No one ever left Hawkins, Indiana. You grew up, got a job, moved out of your parents’ place, and started a family. Repeat. Everyone knew everyone. In fact, everyone knew who Joyce Byers was before the Byers kid had disappeared. everyone was connected. She had even gone to high school with the mother of her son’s bully. Everyone knew each other. Joyce had followed in the footsteps set by those who walked before her; she grew up, moved out, and started a family. Her sister, who she considered to be her best friend growing up, had moved away to Ohio which seemed years away and eventually turned into just that. Phone calls had become shorter and distant until they hadn’t heard from each other in months._

_Until her sister became sick and she visited every other weekend. Sometimes the boys came along but she never forced them. As her sister grew sicker and sicker, Will found himself not being able to see her in that state any longer. So he stayed home, either with Jonathon, who sometimes couldn’t stomach the situation either, or stayed with the Wheelers for the weekend. As her days became numbered conversations became very serious. She didn’t have much to offer but she’d give Joyce everything if she took good care of her only child, her daughter. Joyce, with tears in her eyes, promised to treat her niece like her own._

##  **1984.**

In the summer of 1984, Christy Matthews had lost her mother and was traveling from her home in Ohio to Hawkins, Indiana. Thoughts were jumbling in her mind, she was feeling everything all at once. She had begged to let her aunt travel on her own, she knew the way to Hawkins by memory, having spent almost every summer there after her mother had gotten sick. She had gone through all of their stuff before her mother’s passing, sending some in a moving truck to Hawkins and whatever they couldn’t use or didn’t need was either sold or donated. She packed up her car, blew a kiss to the house she had grown up in and started her drive to Indiana.

The drive hadn’t been long and she had made it back before sunset. Her aunt’s car was gone, probably working, but Jonathon’s sat parked in the driveway. Christy pulled up on the side of the road, not wanting to be in the way of her aunt when she got home. The sun was blistering down on her, she figured it had to be one of the hottest days this summer so far, and she was ready to gather all her shit together and hurry into her new home. It had to be cooler in there than out there. Christy held her hand to her face, trying to block the sun from getting into her eyes, peering towards her home. Three faces peered out at her from the living room window.

“ _That’s_ your cousin?” Dustin turned to Will, who stood with his arms crossed, watching his friends watch his cousin get out of her car. He had mentioned his cousin coming to live with them which caused all of the party, at once, to yell about who was going to be the first one to greet her. Boys were weird, Will concluded. If Christy hadn’t lived so far away for most of his life, Will would have considered her his best friend but that spot was taken by two people; his brother and Mike Wheeler. But she was a close second.

“Didn’t she have braces and glasses last summer?” Lucas questioned, peering into his binoculars at the teenage girl. 

“Yeah,” Will shrugged. “And? So? What does that have to do with anything?” He glanced at each of his friends but they didn’t pay him any attention, too busy gawking at Christy. “Are you guys just gonna sit there or am I going to be the only one helping?” Will put in an extra eye roll for good measure. All he had to do was open the front door and the other three boys were racing towards her, arguing about who was going to carry what and who was going to say hi first.

“Christy!” Dustin yelled, making sure he was the first to say her name. Mike was the first one to get to her, he had the longest legs and he had been smitten with her long before she had lost the braces.

“Dustin!” Christy called back, waving her hand above her head, grinning like an idiot. She couldn’t help it, his smile always made her smile. “Lucas, Mike,” she smiled at the two boys who had made it to her first. “You’ve all grown so much.” She glanced over all of her cousin’s friends, taking in all of their changes. Will was the last to approach the group, taking his time away from his crazy friends. “How’s my favorite cousin?” Christy stepped between Dustin and Lucas to get to her cousin, wrapping him into a hug.

“Don’t let Jonathon hear you say that,” Will grinned. Everyone already knew how close the two were. The two were always close even from miles away.

_summer, 1982_

_Christy was in the passenger side of her aunt Joyce’s car, the radio was at a reasonable volume. It had been a year since her mother had gotten sick and this was the first summer with the Byers. She had gotten to know her aunt and cousins when they came to visit. She was always grateful for the visits, she mostly spent time at home tending to her mom. School then home._

_“I’m sorry I couldn’t get out of working,” Joyce steals a glance at her niece, hands gripping tightly to the wheel. “But I’m gonna make sure you have everything you need. Everything is in driving or biking distance. I know your car is in Ohio but I’m sure Jonathon will let you borrow is. I think he still has his bike unless we gave it to Goodwill.”  
_

_“Thank you, Aunt Joyce,” Christy smiled. She was excited to see where the Byers lived, knowing it was going to be her home someday. She had already accepted that her mother was never going to get better. “For everything.”  
_

_That summer she had spent playing D &D with her cousin at the Wheeler house, borrowing Jonathon’s car on occasion just in case there was a good movie showing or just to get out of the house and go into town. The party showed her around town; either biking or all of them piled into Jonathon’s car. ‘Heat of the Moment’ was blasting on the radio as she drove the kids into town, all of them singing horribly along._

_“I got the album that’s going to change your life,” Christy smiles, taking a hand off the steering wheel and pointing to the cassette she had entrusted with Will. “Put it in.” This album had changed her life and she was about to change the lives of the four boys sitting in that car. “Chills. That’s all I can say.”  
_

_Soon enough, Face Value by Phil Collins was blasting through the speakers of the car. “I’m going to school you guys in cool music, ‘kay? Can’t have you listening to garbage like a bunch of dweebs.” She looked at the three boys sitting in the backseat from the rearview mirror. “We may be dweebs but at least we have good music taste.”_

_“You said 'we',” Dustin stated from the backseat. “That means you’re including yourself and, therefore, grouping us together-”  
_

_“Yeah, I’m a dweeb,” Christy rolled her eyes. “Now shut your face before I take it back.” She didn’t mean it though, she enjoyed their company far too much. She smiled to show she was joking, which caused the boys around her to smile and quickly burst into laughter._

“You can take this box stay into the living room,” Christy smiled, handing over a box to Lucas. “I really appreciate this, guys. I owe you at least two pizzas and some Coke.” Christy grabbed a box and followed behind the boys, Will sticking by her side as she walked up the path.

“I’m glad you’re living with us,” Will said softly, his voice barely above a whisper. “I really missed you.” He looked up towards his cousin, a smile barely forming on his lips. Like he wanted to smile but wasn’t quite there yet. “I’m sorry about Aunt Frankie, by the way.”

“We win some, we lose some, I guess,” Christy shrugged, a few tears threatening to slip. “I know she’d want me to move on.” She stole a glance at Will, stopping at the front door. “We go on living for those who are no longer here, we have to. The only way to go is forward.” The other three boys stood in the doorway, just catching the end of their conversation.

“El,” Mike whispered. He was looking forward, focusing on nothing, not looking at anyone around him

“Who’s El?” Christy questioned, earning looks from the whole party. They stared at her, none of them daring to speak up. “Come on guys,” Christy laughed awkwardly. “You gotta lighten up. You’re one redhead away from looking like the Children of the Corn.”


End file.
